1. Field
The present disclosure relates to an information processing apparatus that displays a road map including road names on a display unit according to road map information, as well as an information processing method and a program that causes a computer to execute processing in the information processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A map display screen that provides route guidance on a smart phone, a navigation device, or the like is convenient in that, for example, a prescribed road name (Tower St. or XX Shop St., for example) is displayed together with a travel route so that a travel direction can be clearly recognized. In some countries or areas, however, roads are not named (particularly, many unnamed roads are present in, for example, developing countries). Therefore, there is a case in which the above convenience of a road name being displayed cannot be provided.
As illustrated in FIG. 4A, which illustrates a guide route screen that displays a road map including a guide route, and in FIG. 4B, which illustrates a process screen for a guide route during travel, UNNAMED RD., for example, is displayed for an unnamed road on a guide route in a road map 100. In this case, it may be difficult to accurately identify the vehicle position 101. In an address search in EU countries, North America and other countries, a house No., a road name, a city name, and the like are entered, for example, “111, KB St., AB city”. In an area in which roads are unnamed (in which case a road name cannot be included in an address), therefore, an address search does not work.
In a navigation apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-14692, if the road name of the road on which the vehicle is currently traveling cannot be detected or the road is unnamed, the road name of the closest of detected roads located ahead in the travel direction is detected and is displayed as a temporary road name.